For sure:One of my forst operas at yhe Met at age 12 or so was a dress rehearsal of Siegfried and I detested it for decades. Even when I saw the Deutsche Oper Ring here in DC in the 80s, I still had issues with it. Only when I heard it last year twice(so its been almost 50 years) with the Canadian Opera and in the WNO Ring with Daniel Brenna did I really come to appreciate it.Alan SavadaWashington DCvia the Samsung Galaxy S® 6, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: Robert Thomson <[log in to unmask]> Date: 2/11/17 2:25 PM (GMT-05:00) To: [log in to unmask] Subject: re. the idea of changing tastes
Kurt Youngmann's posting of changing tastes certainly resonated with me, but in connection with a
movie, "Grapes of Wrath", which I saw on Turner Classic Movies last night. I hadn't seen this movie
for years and I was entranced by how good it was. I saw all kinds of things in it which I had not seen
at age twenty-two. One of the themes that really angered me was the exploitation of the poor by the
rich. This got me thinking about such inequities as the very low wage which sets the bar throughout
much of Canada and the USA, also the appallingly low tax rates for the very rich. I don't think I have
ever seen Rousseau's "Contract Social" quoted in mainstream media but his idea that the collective good
should trump the individual's interest is a good one to keep in mind for legislators.
I know we are supposed to post on opera but where does one draw the line? A posting can trigger precious
insights in fields that go beyond opera.
Robert Thomson
www.godwinbooks.com
(Go to my site, turn the volume up and see if you can guess the singer.)
On 2/11/2017 11:07 AM, kurt youngmann wrote:
> Tastes change. Carmen is an opera I never really cared for when I was young. Recently, all of a sudden, I realized that I do enjoy it.
>
> Of course, my first exposures to the opera was back in the early 50s when Risë Stevens was the gypsy of choice at the Met. I guess she was considered quite sexy or risqué in her day but her sexuality pales in comparison to some more recent interpreters. Probably the most blatantly sexual Carmen I’ve seen in person was Denyce Graves when she appeared in Chicago some years back.
>
> Out of curiosity I ask if anyone else has grown to like operas they didn’t particularly like all that much early on.
>
> Kurt Youngmann
>
> We have evolved to survive reality, not to understand it. - Mark Crislip MD
>
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